


Prodigal Son

by morephan



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Scott McCall, Alpha Theo Raeken, Grieving Stiles Stilinski, Hurt Liam, Hurt Scott, Past Character Death, Stiles-centric, Stydia, angsty liam, idk what else to put it's kind of a lot idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 21:29:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8549758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morephan/pseuds/morephan
Summary: This takes place in 2024! Lydia & Stiles are married but without kids. Scott's living alone for the time being (implied scira). Mason's in college. Lots of Scott/Liam angst, but all with a happy ending imo. Everyone is sort of sad; it's pretty much a mess of emotions. Hope you enjoy!





	

Stiles walks through the door of an empty and quiet house, shrugs off his coat, and sits on the staircase. Today is a very sad day for him. Today is the anniversary of when his mother passed away. He got off work at the police station early today. Lydia knew and wanted to be there for Stiles, but she couldn’t get of work. It’s days like this where Stiles doesn’t want any children. He doesn’t want to take the risk of having them endure the same crippling sadness he faces when he dreams about his mothers beautiful face, laying in a hospital bed. His father is retired now, and he’s chosen to travel with Chris. Stiles finds it humorous, that two grown men who have experienced incredible loss still want to see the world that has forsaken them and their happiness. Maybe he’s just being pessimistic, that’s what Scott says. 

“The world doesn’t hate you, Stiles. And neither does God.”

Sometimes, Stiles just wants to yell at Scott. He doesn’t understand how Scott can just keep going. After everything they’ve been through, it still seems like Scott is impervious to pain, to sadness. 

Stiles realizes he’s been sitting on the staircase, thinking, for almost an hour when someone knocks on the door. He rises from the stairs, wipes off his tears, and opens the door. It’s Scott. After everything they’ve been through, Scott is still his best friend, his crutch, his world, even. Lydia often jokes about how he and Scott should’ve gotten married instead, they sure do act like they are. Stiles didn’t call Scott, didn’t tell him, didn’t remind him of the date. But Scott knew. He always knows. 

“I made you something, I know it’s kind of silly, but I figured you would like it.” Scott has a little gift bag in his hand, and shoves it into Stiles arms and goes into the living room and paces, anxiously almost. 

Stiles frowns in confusion, but never turns down an opportunity to open a present.

“Is this going to explode in my face?” Scott chuckles, “Not this time. Open it.”

Stiles tries to smile, but it hurts. He sits down on the couch and takes out the wrapping paper. He pulls out the little booklet, and flips through the pages. It’s filled with pictures, starting from kindergarten of his friends and family. They sit there staring at years and years of pictures. They cry, and laugh, and tell stories about how young and stupid they were when Scott first turned.

“Like, why did we think that chains would be a good idea? You’re a freaking supernatural animal.”

“I think this was the year that Lydia told me she loved me.” “That was definitely the year Lydia told you she loved you. I remember you calling me sobbing after she left. It was kind of funny but also really sweet.” 

“Do you remember Allison well still?” “Yeah… I can still hear her laugh. She was kind of... scary sometimes though. That was a long time ago, Stiles. She was everything to me. And I was.. what? 16? We were so young. She was so young.”

At this point, Stiles realized that he wasn’t the only one who still felt the constant pain of loss. Scott lost so many people, and tried to save all of them.

“Have you talked to Liam recently?” Scott’s face falls from sad nostalgia to frustration. 

“No. I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since… well, since your wedding probably. He’s really angry with me, like really angry.”

“Maybe I could somehow get Lydia–“ 

“Stiles, no. This is something we have to work out individually.” 

The nostalgic mood was quickly reverted back to it’s corner of Stiles’ and Scott’s mind by a morose atmosphere. One wrong word, one wrong decision, and you lose a friend. They all knew Liam was sensitive and had a fickle heart, but that night was different; Liam was different. Hayden pledged her allegiance to Theo. He was her alpha, but Liam tried and tried to bring her over to Scott’s pack. Scott kept telling Liam it wasn’t a good idea, that Hayden had made up her mind, but Liam wouldn’t give in. This kept on for years, until one day, he left. It was Stiles and Lydia’s wedding day. They invited Hayden and Liam, and of course Mason. Everything was going fine, until Hayden began shouting at Malia for insulting Theo. It seemed that Theo and Hayden had gotten closer over the years. Malia said something along the lines of, “So you’re married to him now? Knew you were always pathetic. Glad you’re not in our pack.” Liam slapped Malia, then left. No one had heard from him since. That was two years ago. Malia still apologizes to this day.

“It’s not your fault, Scott.” Stiles sputtered out. Scott clenched and unclenched his fist. No one had ever said that to him. He tried to say it to himself, but it never came out, so he stopped trying. 

“I pushed him away, Stiles.” Scott hugged Stiles for a really long time, crying– no, more like wailing, for his prodigal son. 

After what seemed like days, Stiles laid Scott down on the couch, who immediately fell asleep. His grief and regret weigh him down. They exhaust him. Stiles makes a quick call to Lydia, asking if she’ll pick up some Chinese takeout on her way home from work. She begrudgingly agrees.

Stiles walks back into the living room and continues flipping through the photobook. He reaches the last page and sees the final pictures. The first one is of him, Lydia, Scott, Allison, Derek (who isn’t even smiling), and Isaac. The caption underneath it is, “We were the dream team…” The second picture is one of him, Scott, Lydia, Kira, Malia, Liam, and Mason. The caption is, “But these guys are alright, too.” Stiles chuckled a little, thinking back on all of those years. How many people they’d lost, who stuck around. Him and Lydia. Scott. Malia. That’s four. Maybe one day he’ll get them all back. He just wants to see his friends again, all of them. He talks to them, all but Liam, from time to time. Derek is with Cora. They’re doing good, just the two of them. The Hales were never really social people, anyways. Isaac is out there, somewhere. He misses the pack, Stiles thinks. The pack misses him too. Kira is coming back soon actually. Which is relieving for him, because Scott is kind of a bad third wheel. It’s been years, but Kira will have no problem fitting back in. What he would give to get those people back in his life. Himself, probably, but that would kind of defeat the purpose. Scott needs that community. He thrives on it. Stiles decides he has to do something.

Lydia gets home and they all sit around in silence, eating their orange chicken. They know that Stiles always goes to the cemetery, and always goes alone. Lydia and Scott both offer, as always, but they’re both turned down, as always. But this year, Stiles decides it’s time to gain back the people he’s lost, not to the grave, but to stupid mistakes, or grief. He gets in his jeep (Yes, the same old jeep. It’s basically a pile of rust now, but Lydia won’t let Stiles give it away.) and heads to the apartment where Liam and Hayden used to live. 

...

It takes about forty five minutes, but he gets there. He shuts the jeep door and walks up the stairs to room number 215. Stiles hesitates before knocking, but knows his mother would be proud of him for choosing love and family over animosity and hatred. He knocks thrice, and… Theo opens the door. 

“Oh.. Um, hi. You were not who I was expecting. That’s particularly unfortunate. Hi, um.. It’s been a while. Anyways.. is Liam here? I need to talk to him.” Stiles fiddles with his jacket zipper, trying to ignore how Theo literally has not changed over the past 5 or so years. Theo gives him a confused look, and is about to speak before a girl puts her hand through Theo’s arm and interrupts him. 

“Stiles? What are you doing here?” 

It’s Hayden. This suddenly got very uncomfortable for Stiles, and probably for Theo, and all of the ghosts who are watching this unfold in the underworld.

“I.. I was, uh, looking for Liam.” Her confused look instantly turns into a frown, and she pushes Stiles away from the doorway. “Is this some kind of sick joke? Get out of my house. I don’t ever want to see you again.” 

Theo grabs Stile’s by the shirt collar and says, no shouts. “You heard her. Get out of our house.” 

“Wait, wait, wait. Our house? What’s going on? This was Liam’s.” Stiles was confused to begin with, but this is like, Lydia starts speaking about the theory of evolution and is saying big words level confusion.

Theo lets go, and Hayden steps forward and looks at Stiles with a deadpan expression. “I haven’t spoken to him since your wedding. I left him.” 

And that’s the explanation. Shocking, but still an explanation. “Oh! Okay! Um, that explains a lot. Okay. Do you know where I can find him? Actually, never mind. The more questions I ask the more evil you two look, so I’m leaving now. Nice seeing you both again. Okay, um, bye.” 

Stiles basically falls down the stairs he’s running so fast. His mind is reeling, and he thinks of one other place Liam might be: Mason's. Mason is still in college right now, but he’s fairly local. At most, his apartment is an hour away. However far it is, Stiles will drive it. He starts the jeep, and quickly dials Mason’s number. He and Mason actually hang out quite frequently, but they never talk about Liam or Hayden, or the wedding. It’s mostly just silly things, or what Mason’s learning this semester. It’s about time Stiles asked. 

“Hey, man. Is everything alright? It’s kind of late.” Mason’s cheery voice replies. 

Stiles has no hesitation this time, “Where’s Liam, Mason?”

He can basically hear Mason’s jaw fall open. 

“Stiles.. I–“ “Mason, I really need to talk to him. If you care about him or me or the pack or really anyone at all, you’ll tell me. I promise I won’t make things worse.”

Mason waits a few moments, and takes a deep breath. “I trust you, Stiles. I really do. He’s in the shower right now. He’s been living with me for the past few months. I don’t know where he was before then. He doesn’t want to talk about it. He got really hurt after the wedding, said it didn’t feel right coming back to Scott after he slapped Malia. Sometimes, I hear him talking to himself, just apologizing over and over again. He’s not at a good place. Help him, Stiles. I don’t know what to do anymore. He needs you guys, he’s just so, so hurt.” 

Stiles puts the jeep in drive and says, “I’m on my way.”

Stiles makes it to the school in 53 minutes. He whips the jeep into the parking lot and jogs to Mason’s apartment room. He can hear some yelling from inside, so he doesn’t knock automatically.

“Liam, he just wants to help!” Stiles guesses that’s Mason, he sounds passionate, but he’s always been the less assertive one.

“I don’t need or want any help. They don’t want me there anyway. Will you please open the door? It feels like Stiles is breathing down my neck.”

Stiles holds his breath; he sort of forgot Liam was a werewolf for a second. Mason slowly opens the door and tries to give the ‘We Were Totally Just Having A Married Couple Argument, But I’m Pretending Like You Didn’t Hear Any Of It’ face. 

“Good to see you again, Stiles. He’s in the kitchen.” Mason sighs and stays in the living room. Stiles figures he didn’t want to feel like he was intruding. Mason always thought about things like that. One time, during one of their ‘bro outings’ (as Stiles calls them), Mason opened up about feeling like he wasn’t really apart of the pack. That’s how Mason always felt; apart, yet not apart. Significant, yet not significant enough. Stiles tried to make him feel a little bit better, but Mason said Liam helps him feel at home. They have their own little pack of sorts. It’s funny, because that’s exactly how Stiles felt for years. Some days, he still does. Honestly, it’s still just him and Scott. Always has been, always will be. 

Stiles slowly walks into the kitchen. As soon as he lays eyes on Liam, he just wants to hug him. It’s too tense for Stiles to even touch Liam. It feels as if he’s walking through fog, trying to reach Liam. He’s isolated himself so much in the past two years, he might as well be a Hale. Okay, maybe a Hale is too strong, but Liam has been pretty isolated.

“Before you start yelling at me to leave, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. For everything.” 

Liam turns around and faces Stiles with a confused and saddened expression, “You’re sorry? What did you do, Stiles? What have you ever done?”

Stiles was taken aback by Liam’s response. This is probably the most fragile and broken version of Liam he’s ever seen. His honesty, even if Stiles’s doesn’t believe it himself, struck a chord within Stiles.

“Liam, I–“ “Stiles, you should go.” Liam turned back around, and the atmosphere lifted a little bit. Stiles made his way over to Liam and rested his hand lightly on Liam’s arm. 

“I’m not leaving you.” Liam chuckled and shrugged Stiles’s hand off; the air was thick again. This is how it sometimes felt when Scott was going through something and knew Stiles couldn’t truly understand.

“Stiles, you haven’t changed a bit. Well, you’ve aged, but you’re still the same. I’m not, though. I’m not the same as I was two years ago. I’m not the same little kid you and Scott tried to fix. I can’t be fixed, Stiles! When will you realize that?” Liam slowly moved closer to Stiles, as Stiles moved back. Liam flashed his eyes quickly and looked down, ashamed almost. They were blue. 

“Liam, that’s not something to be concerned with. Derek had blu–“ “I’m not Derek! I’m not Scott! I’m not Isaac! I’m me! For the past 7 years of my life, you all have been comparing me to the ‘greats’! I’m not like them, Stiles. I’m not like them.” Liam slides against the wall and sits on the ground with his head in his hands. Stiles wasn’t too sure what to do. Liam was right, he isn’t Scott, even though they’re similar. They have similar beliefs and personalities, but they’re different people. Liam may not be able to work through things like Scott does. Liam may not be as open as Scott is about what he’s feeling, at least with Stiles.

Stiles slowly approaches Liam, “Can I sit beside you?” Liam doesn’t look up, but nods shudders as he starts to cry. “Comparison will kill you, Liam. Thank you for telling me. I’m sorry you’ve felt like that for so long. I guess we just, didn’t know how to move on after we lost so many people. We shouldn’t have tried to make you our project. I don’t think Scott meant to, but he tends to do that accidentally sometimes. He does it with me. Now, I just give him a look, and he usually shuts up. Hah, but that doesn’t work with everyone. You’ve gotta tell him, bud.” This only makes Liam cry harder, and he’s trying so hard to keep it in.

“I can’t, Stiles... I just... can’t. I don’t want him to be… disappointed in me.” 

Liam doesn’t realize this, but Mason shot Scott a text, letting him know where Stiles was. He came as fast as he could. Lydia came too, just because she didn’t want to be left behind again. 

“I’m not disappointed in you, Liam. I’ve never been disappointed in you.” 

Scott offered his hand down to Liam and pulled Liam up. He didn’t really give Liam a choice for a hug or not like Stiles did. He just went for it. That was the best thing for Liam. 

“Scott, I’m so sorry. I should’ve listened to you.”

Scott smiled sadly and put his hands on Liam’s shoulders, looking him in the eye.

“No, you shouldn’t have listened to me. It was about time that I learned to stop trying to make you fix the mistakes I made. Those are my mistakes, and these are yours.”

Liam hugged Scott again and whispered too soft for anyone but Scott to hear, “I missed you guys so much.” 

“We missed you too.”

...

The drive home was a quiet one, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Stiles drove Lydia back, who sat in the car while Scott while he took care of ‘the children’, as Lydia refers to them. It was almost 2am, but Scott decided to stay at Mason’s for the night. Mason stayed too, just because he didn’t want to be left behind again.

“Stiles, did you go to the cemetery?”

Stiles frowned, but she grabbed his hand and held it to her lips. “We can go if you want to... Do you?” 

“I don’t want to be alone.” Stiles said as tears welled to his eyes. Lydia wiped the tear of his cheek, “As long as I’m here, you won’t be alone. Let’s go.”

Stiles turned around and drove to where his mother was buried. Lydia had never been there. No one except Scott and his father had been there with him. Stiles was glad she was there, however. She doesn’t care if he cries, she just wants to be there for him. It had always been hard for him… to go to his mother’s grave. But it almost seemed… easier with Lydia there. As if his mother was proud of him for finding her, or maybe she was proud of Lydia for finding him. Whatever it was, he was thankful.

They got out of the jeep, and Stiles led her slowly to the grave with all of the flowers on it. Lydia looks at Stiles, who has the same expression he did in the 3rd grade, broken. Stiles could tell she was uncomfortable, so he put her arm around her and whispered, “You can get back in the car if you want to.” 

Lydia smiled reassuringly, and sets her flower she plucked from the bush outside of Mason’s apartment before they left. It was almost as if she knew they would be going to the cemetery. She does that sometimes, knows what Stiles wants to do before he knows it himself; emotional tether or whatever. It makes Stiles cry even harder. Lydia was always there, and now, she always will be. But it’s different now. Back then, Stiles loved her endlessly, which hasn’t changed, but Lydia didn’t care for him like that. She probably didn’t care at all. It’s different now, because she loves him just as much as he loves her. And it shows. Stiles sits cross-legged at the foot of the grave, and occupies his hands with the grass. Lydia sits down beside him and rests her head on his shoulder. They sit there for hours, in fulfilling silence.

It seems sort of depressing and maybe backwards, but sitting in the middle of a cemetery after such an emotionally taxing night makes Stiles realize something. He doesn’t have to be alone. It sounds so simple, but it’s one of the hardest concepts for people, especially his friends it seems, to grasp. Stiles doesn’t have to be alone on this night. He isn’t burdening Lydia with his grief. Liam doesn’t have to be alone or ashamed. He isn’t burdening others with his mistakes. The beauty behind friendship and family is not that they help you through the hard times, but they go through the hard times with you. They don’t leave you to suffer alone. If there’s one thing Stiles has learned from his abnormal life, it’s that.


End file.
